About teaching and training Eskrima and Bagua. Recommended seminars, and related material I find interesting.

Monday, February 15, 2016

News but No Politics

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia just died. He was an incredibly opinionated and polarizing figure, highly conservative in the old sense of the word, and both loved and hated equally (depending on your political persuasion) for his views.

This is not what this post is about.

It's about his lifelong, close friendship with another member of the court, Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, pretty much his polar opposite in political terms.

Well, in essence, the better your adversaries are, the better your game will get.

The sharper witted their critique or dissent, the more you'll have to up your game to stay in contention. They will show you your errors, point out the holes and gaps in your argument, and will not tolerate a lack of precision in your aim.
In this era when so many wish to be surrounded only bythose that agree with them, who keep all 'enemies' or dissenters at arms length, and who refuse to consider the opinions of 'the other side' as worthy of anything more than some yelling and pointing from a distance. It might pay to consider the repercussions of never letting the opposition come close enough for a nice friendly chat.

The old adage is "Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer" comes to mind, but I prefer Sonny's - 'Don't keep them out. Let them come. They are coming anyway."

What he meant was: Keep control of the relationship, the time and the space. Make things happen on your terms.

But in training, what he also meant was that you should always be trying to learn your adversary's game, and learn what they see as the holes in yours. You can't see what they see, and you can't be who they are. And the only way is to let them do their thing. Listen to them. Watch them. Learn.

Obviously the classier and skilled your opponent, the more there will be to consider ....